Back Home to Me
by thepiraticalconductor
Summary: It had been two years, almost to the day, since Dave has left for Iraq. Kurt could still remember standing in the airport, feeling a little uncomfortable with the rest of the Army Wives.


It had been two years, almost to the day, since Dave has left for Iraq. Kurt could still remember standing in the airport, feeling a little uncomfortable with the rest of the Army Wives. Sure, Don't Ask Don't Tell had long been repealed and gay men and women were largely accepted by their peers in the military, but as Kurt looked around, he didn't see another guy.

Dave had turned and waved at the gate, giving an extra smile to their son, Tucker. He was just three years old when his father had left, but Kurt could swear the boy remembered, if only from the pictures.

"Daddy, tell me again," the now five-year-old said. "Tell me about you and Dad."

They were sitting in the kitchen, making cookies for when Grandpa Burt and Grandma Carole were visiting the next day. Kurt had asked if Tucker would rather make deviled eggs or turnovers instead, but the boy had been adament. It was peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, or nothing at all.

Kurt turned and smiled at his son. He had Kurt's blue green eyes and lithe figure, but he was every bit his father's son. He loved to play outside and run around in the sunlight. Already, he had a temper, but only when someone he loved was threatened. After repeated listenings of Kurt and Dave's high school years, he had taken to calling his fist The Fury. _Dave would have loved that_, Kurt thought with a sad sigh.

"Your father and I weren't always friends, Tucker. In fact, we were quite the opposite. We were the bitterest of enemies," Kurt began.

"Because Dad didn't like that he liked boys? The same way you do?" Tucker asked.

"Yes, love. Your father wasn't always as comfortable with himself as he is now. He was very mean and angry and used that anger to lash out at people. He did very bad things. Unspeakable things. But he knew he was wrong, knew that that horrible person he had been wasn't what he wanted to be for the rest of his life."

"Did you forgive him, Daddy? For being so mean?" Tucker asked as he stirred in the mixed bag of peanut butter and chocolate chips.

"Yes," Kurt said. "Yes, I did. There was good in him. No person is all bad, Tucker, just as no person is all good. Everyone makes mistakes, and yes, most of them aren't as bad as the ones your father made, but I forgave him because I understood, to some degree, why he did what he did. I came back from Dalton-"

"Where you met Uncle Blaine?"

"Yes, dear. Keep stirring the batter or you won't get enough air in it," he said, pointing the whisk he was holding to the bowl. His son gasped and started stirring with vigor again. "We still weren't friends when I came back. We didn't really talk until the following year. He joined Glee Club and we started talking and were in a few classes together and…I don't know. It was awkward being around him those first few months. I believed him when he said he wouldn't hurt me, believed that he wasn't that person anymore, but the things he did…they were hard to forget."

"Did you fall in love with him, Daddy?" Tucker asked, stomping around the kitchen to get the ice cream scoop to put the dough on a baking sheet. "Whenever Dad tells the story, you _always_ fall in love with him." Kurt laughed and nodded, helping his son and turning the over on to pre-heat.

"Of course he says that. He did sweep me off my feet, though. In the spring of our senior year, I was sitting in AP English, trying to recite _Hamlet_ and in walks your father in the middle of class, carrying a boombox. Your Auntie Cedes and Auntie Rach burst into smiles the second he walked into the room. I had no idea what I was in for.

"'Kurt Elizabeth Hummel,' he said. 'I know I've done some awful things to you, things that I can't even begin to ask you to forgive me for. I know I don't deserve you, but I have to ask you something.' Now, keep in mind, your father wasn't out yet, so you can imagine my shock when he began to sing to me:

_I'm not a perfect person_  
><em>There's many things I wish I didn't do<em>  
><em>But I continue learning<em>  
><em>I never meant to do those things to you<em>  
><em>And so I have to say before I go<em>  
><em>That I just want you to know<em>

_I've found a reason for me_  
><em>To change who I used to be<em>  
><em>A reason to start over new<em>  
><em>and the reason is you<em>

_I'm sorry that I hurt you_  
><em>It's something I must live with everyday<em>  
><em>And all the pain I put you through<em>  
><em>I wish that I could take it all away<em>  
><em>And be the one who catches all your tears<em>  
><em>Thats why i need you to hear<em>

_I've found a reason for me_  
><em>To change who I used to be<em>  
><em>A reason to start over new<em>  
><em>and the reason is You<em>

The familiar lyrics slid easily off of Kurt's tongue. He wished that his husband could be there to sing it to him, the way he did almost every night before they finally went to sleep. God, he missed that warm, rough voice in his ear, singing him to sleep. Kurt's voice broke on the last verse and he felt Tucker place a little hand on his wrist.

"It isn't the same if Dad isn't singing it, is it?" he asked. Kurt nodded and wiped his tears on his apron. "Then what happened?"

"He asked me to senior prom. And how could I say no after a prom proposal like that, I ask you?" Kurt laughed. "It was…magical. He looked so handsome and was so kind and danced with all of our friends all night. He got elected Prom King for the second year in a row. Auntie Santana and Quinn were up for Queen and had gotten everyone on the court to abdicate, and gave the crown to me. The year before, I had been crowned that same title as a joke, but it turns out it had been Dave's idea to get me elected. I asked him why as we went down to have our dance."

"What did he say?" Tucker asked, sitting on the edge of his seat.

"I said 'Because I ran away the first time.'"

Dave stood in the doorway to the kitchen, his back slung over one shoulder, still in his army fatigues. He looked exhausted, thinner and his eyes were a little sunken in, but his smile more than made up for it. Tucker was the first to respond.

"DADDY!" he cried, running into his father's arms. Dave bent down and pulled his son into a fierce hug. "I missed you. You were gone away for _so_ long," the little boy squealed. "But Daddy said that you had to because you were protecting us and said that you _promised_ you would come home safe and you did!"

"Yes, I did. Just like I promised," he smiled, giving Tucker a kiss on the top of his head. Both father and son turned when a cookie tray clattered to the ground. Cookie dough went everywhere, like pucks sliding on ice. Kurt's hands had been shaking so hard, he'd dropped it. Tears were falling down his cheeks and he seemed unable to speak. Dave slid his bag off his shoulder and stood, not moving towards his husband.

"Hey, baby," he said softly. "I'm home."

"David…" Kurt breathed, his voice broken from crying. "Oh, _David!_" He all but ran into Dave's arms, hands grabbing at whatever they could reach and crashing his lips onto his. Two years of lonliness, of having to survive on contact through letters, were over, at last. His husband, the love of his life, was back where he belonged, home, in his arms. "I'm never letting you go again," he sobbed, his lips moving to press as many kisses as possible all over Dave's face. "Never ever. Never again, you hear me?" he said, almost in hysterics. Dave held onto him just as tightly.

"Yes, my love, I hear you," he said.

"I checked the news every day, David. Every day, just to make sure that you were still alive. I was terrified every time there was a new suicide bombing or attack or anything. You could have _died _at any moment and I couldn't lose you, David. I couldn't!" Kurt sunk onto the floor and Dave moved with him, practically pulling the smaller man into his lap.

"I promised you that I would always come back to you, didn't I?" Dave whispered as he rubbed Kurt's back. "At graduation back in Lima, didn't I promise you? We were nearly out of each others lives once before and I knew that I would do whatever it took to make sure that never happened again. I kept that promise when we went to separate colleges. I kept that promise on our wedding day. I kept that promise as we sat in the maternity ward, waiting for Rachel to deliver our baby. Did you think I was going to let something as small as a _war_ get in the way of me coming back home to you, Kurt?" Dave laughed. Kurt laughed a little and wiped at his tears.

"I love you, David. I love you so much. Please don't go like that ever again, _please_." Kurt sniffled and buried his head into his husband's chest.

"Daddy's right. Besides, I won't let you," Tucker said, with all the conviction of a child still locked in innocence. He wrapped his arms around his father with a laugh. Dave smiled and patted his head.

"How could I refuse an order like that?"


End file.
